Latest / The Path Went Chilly / Rodney Marks Pt. One

Transcript

Rodney Marks Pt. One · The Path Went Chilly

0:29
Welcome back to the Pathway Chile. I'm Robin, I'm Jules, and I'm
0:34
Ashley. Let's dive right into this week's case. May twelfth, two thousand,
0:40
the South Pole, Antarctica. While working at the Almunston Scott South Pole
0:45
Station, thirty two year old Australian astrophysicist Rodney Marx becomes seriously ill before he
0:52
dies. Rodney's death is initially assumed to be natural causes, but when his
0:57
body is transported to New Zealand months later, an autopsy reveals that he died
1:02
from acute methanol poisoning. The New Zealand police attempt to launch an investigation,
1:07
but run into jurisdictional issues and Rodney's American based employers proved to be uncooperative.
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A coroner's inquest fails to turn up any conclusive evidence to support Rodney's death being
1:19
a homicide, suicide, or accidental, so there's still no answers about how
1:25
he was poisoned. After that, the path went chilly. So this week,
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for the very first time ever, we're going to be covering an unsolved
1:34
mystery which took place in Antarctica. The Unexplained two thousand deaths of Rodney Marx.
1:40
Today's victim was an astrophysicist from Australia who was assigned to a year long
1:45
stint working at a scientific research station in the South Pole. But after falling
1:49
ill one day, Rodney's condition gradually worsened until he died around thirty six hours
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later. The freezing weather conditions made it impossible to fly Rodney's body back to
1:59
the mainland for nearly six months, and it was only then that an autopsy
2:02
revealed that his cause of death was methanol poisoning. But by this point,
2:07
the forty nine other people who worked at the research station alongside Rodney had all
2:13
returned home and gone their separate ways. Since the New Zealand Police had handled
2:16
the autopsy, they wanted to conduct a full scale investigation into Rodney's death.
2:22
But we're talking about an Australian citizen who died in Antarctica at a station controlled
2:27
by an independent agency of the United States government. Since this sort of situation
2:31
was pretty much unprecedented, you could only imagine the massive red tape and jurisdictional
2:37
issues. The media would refer to this story as the first South Pole murder,
2:42
but without a thorough investigation, it was impossible to determine if Rodney's death
2:46
was actually a murder, or if it could have been suicide or a tragic
2:50
accident, or even a prank gone horribly wrong. Rodney was known for being
2:53
heavy drinker, which provides the most logical explanation for how he could have ingested
2:59
the methanol, but whether it was because someone attempted to intentionally poison him is
3:04
still unclear. It's a pretty baffling mystery which has a number of potential theories
3:07
that we're going to explore. And despite the Antarctica setting, I solemnly swear
3:13
that we will not fall into the trap of making a bunch of bad Trail
3:16
went Cold or pathwent Chili puns. Oh domain promises. We can't keep Robin.
3:22
That's not fair to us. Okay, So I have a question,
3:24
what kind of research lab is he at? Uh, Well, discuss it
3:30
momentarily. But it's more of an astrophysical research lab where they want to look
3:34
at stuff that's in the sky and stuff that's taking place, and that's why
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they go all the way to the South Pole. So this has nothing to
3:40
do with like industrial or mechanical research, right, which would explain why things
3:47
like window washer fluid or anti freeze or those kinds of things would be present
3:53
in a setting like that, which also can lead to methanol poisoning. Well,
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he did have methanol there, that there are some substances that theoretically could
4:01
have been used to poison him. But whether it was like intentional murder or
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he ingested it accidentally, we still don't know. But I know that when
4:13
I sent the script to Jules before we recorded. A lot of the time
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she isn't familiar with the cases we cover beforehand. But this one, you
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said you were obsessed with this case, right. I really and truly am
4:24
obsessed with this case because there's so little information and you're left to connect the
4:29
dots. I know which way I follow, but I don't want to say
4:31
it yet because I want Ashley to draw her own conclusions. But it is
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just one of the most frustrating cases that have ever come across. It is
4:41
like the plot of a horror movie. You're at this facility in Antarctica and
4:46
there's literally nobody there that can help you with this point in time. You
4:49
can't get an autopsy right away. You can have a proper investigation. There
4:54
could have been a killer on the loose and they could have all been goners
4:57
if it was a horror movie. But this was real life. Robin's going
5:00
to tell you later on in the episode some crazy stories of things that have
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gone down at research facilities like this, including one doctor that does her own
5:10
surgery on herself. Oh my gosh. It does seem really interesting, though.
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You have this place where people are going to do research, but there's
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so many mixed facets there. There's international researchers from all over the world there.
5:23
Like you said, it's missing what you see in a typical city,
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like I'm assuming there's not, you know, the law enforcement, the legal
5:30
system and those kinds of things. And you're waiting months to get that man's
5:34
body back to New Zealand so that they can do an autopsy. All those
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things set up this to fail from the very beginning. Like you said,
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Jules, who knows who could have been doing this if it is indeed a
5:46
poisoning of this man, and what could have happened to that person, were
5:51
they still at that research lab, was anyone else hurt? I mean,
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it's just a very very unsettling situation. Story begins in Antarctica in two thousand
6:02
and Our central figure is thirty two year old Rodney David Marx. Rodney was
6:08
originally born in DeLong, Australia, and while he would struggle with the mild
6:13
case of Turette syndrome, he proved to be a very bright child who started
6:16
doing crossword puzzles and using a resource at age seven. Rodney excelled in school,
6:23
as he first obtained a bachelor's degree in astronomy at the University of Melbourne
6:28
before earning a doctorate in physics at the University of New South Wales. He
6:32
sought a career in astrophysics and was particularly fascinated by the South Pole, which
6:38
he wrote his thesis on. Rodney considered it to be a great location for
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astrophysical observation, and he traveled there on a two week radio astronomy research stint
6:48
in nineteen ninety four. Three years later, Rodney decided to return to the
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South Pole for what would be a full one year long research stint as he
6:58
was assigned by the University of Time Chicago Centro for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica aka
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KARA to work on their South Pole Infrared Explorer Project. The project took place
7:10
at the Ammonston Scott South Pole Station, a scientific research center located at the
7:15
southernmost point of the world, which is named after Roald Amonston and Robert F.
7:19
Scott, the first two explorers to ever reach the South Pole. The
7:24
station is run by the National Science Foundation aka the NSF, an independent agency
7:30
funded by the United States government. The NSF are responsible for all American scientific
7:35
activity in Antarctica, and back then they often subcontracted a lot of this work
7:41
to the Polar Services division of the Raytheon Technologies Corporation. Rodney was stationed there
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from November nineteen ninety seven until November nineteen ninety eight and enjoyed the experience so
7:53
much that he decided to sign up for another year long stint on cars Antarctic
7:58
Submillimeter Telescope and Research Observatory Project. It would last from November nineteen ninety nine
8:03
until November two thousand and consist of such tasks as measuring ozone in the atmosphere
8:11
and capturing sub atomic particles and neutrinos from space. Rodney would work as the
8:16
project's winter over scientist, and one of his main responsibilities was coordinating experiments and
8:22
collecting data by operating the submillimeter telescope to observe radiation from gas clouds around the
8:28
star forming regions in space. Okay, so clearly this guy's brilliant because half
8:33
that stuff I couldn't understand, right, But it's really interesting because he has
8:41
this affinity for the South Pole. And this is not the first time that
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he has said, I'm going to sacrifice everything I'm doing kind of mainland and
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where I live and work and operate. I'm going to drop everything and go
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for these week long, the becoming year long assignments to really pursue my love
9:00
of research and to be an explorer and to discover new things. And so
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for this trip, which is his last trip to Antarctica. He dies halfway
9:09
through that year. And it makes me to stop and think, like,
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you have someone who is so passionate, who was moving so many barriers and
9:20
trying to make scientific breakthroughs that very few people were probably specializing in and exploring,
9:26
and then he ends up debt. It's just so sad as he's pursuing
9:30
something he loves so much, his life's taken away from him. Yeah,
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you pretty much have to be a tough cookie to spend an entire year in
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Antarctica. It's a very arduous task, but it says a lot about Rodney
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that he does at once and then automatically says, sign me up again.
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I can't wait to do this all over. So he must have been really
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passionate about what he was doing and really kind of liked the solitude of being
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in this spot where you're thousands of miles from civilization with a select handful of
9:56
people. But I think he just loved that environment. So the Edmondson Scott
10:01
Station was situated at a location which had six consecutive summer months of non stop
10:05
daylight followed by six consecutive winter months of non stop darkness. A crew of
10:11
two hundred and fifty people would work at the station during the summer season before
10:15
returning home, while a crew of fifty scientists, technicians, construction crew and
10:20
other personnel remained there during the winter season. Rodney was one of the fifty
10:24
who volunteered to stay all year round, and shortly after he arrived, he
10:28
became romantically involved with a thirty three year old maintenance specialist named Sonya Walter.
10:33
The couple hitted off almost immediately, and even performed together in a heavy metal
10:37
band called Fanny Pack and the Big Nancy Boys. While Sonia was only supposed
10:41
to work at the station during the summer months, she volunteered to extend or
10:45
stay there so she could remain with Rodney during his entire year long stint.
10:50
They also decided to get engaged and planned to marry each other once they returned
10:54
to the mainland. He literally goes to Antarctica and falls in love with someone
11:00
so quickly that every part of who he is performing in the epic Fanni Pack
11:05
Band and the Big Nancy Boys, and then also not just becoming romantically involved,
11:11
but you get engaged and you have plans to get married right after this
11:16
year long stint here in Antarctica together. In my head, the first thing
11:20
when you said he's getting romantically involved, I said, oh, this is
11:24
bad. It's going to be a breakup. She's going to tell someone she
11:26
feels threatened by him, and they go after him. But they're not in
11:31
a bad place. They're actually newly into each other, which very rarely is
11:35
when the problems begin in a relationship, and they have big plans when they
11:39
get home. So in my gut. I'm thinking, how joyful when typically
11:45
in investigations it is someone intimately involved with you. So tell me, do
11:50
we know more about this relationship or what Sonya may or may not have known
11:54
or had to do with Rodney's death. Sonia is someone who has become very
12:00
like tight lipped about the whole experience. She doesn't like to give interviews about
12:03
it. But at no point has she ever been considered a suspect or is
12:05
there any indication that this engagement had any connection to his death. But it
12:11
is pretty sad that they never made it to the mainland and got married,
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because what a story that would be to tell for your lives, Like how
12:16
many couples are you going to know who met and got engaged. While they
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were living together in Antarctica, a lot of Rodney's work took place inside the
12:24
station's remote observatory, which required him to make a daily one kilometer commute in
12:30
the freezing temperatures between the observatory and the main base. On May eleventh,
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while walking towards the base, Rodney started feeling ill, and over the next
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twenty four hours his condition would keep worsening. While eating dinner in the galley,
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was Sonia that night. Rodney told her that he wasn't feeling well and
12:50
was having trouble seeing clearly, so he went to bed early. At five
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point thirty am on the morning of May twelfth, Rodney woke up with a
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burning sensation in the pit of his stomach and started vomiting blood. Over the
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course of the day, he would make three visits to the base's medical facility
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and was checked out by the physician, doctor Robert Thompson. Rodney had a
13:11
reputation around the base for being a bit of a binge drinker and would sometimes
13:16
drink to mask the symptoms of his Tourette syndrome, so doctor Thompson initially wondered
13:20
if he was suffering from the effects of alcohol withdrawal, or perhaps even an
13:24
anxiety attack. Prior to his deployment to the South Pole, Rodney had been
13:30
required to complete a number of rigorous medical and psychological exams, and he easily
13:35
passed without any noticeable issues. By the time Rodney made a second visit to
13:39
doctor Thompson, he said he had trouble moving due to pains in his joints
13:43
and muscles, and had to wear sunglasses to protect his eyes. So he
13:48
was injected with a sedative. Since Thompson could not figure out what was wrong
13:52
with Rodney, he hoped to seek outside medical advice by using a satellite phone,
13:58
but they would usually view photo signal for a large portion of the day.
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The sedative only calmed down Rodney for a short time, and it wasn't
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long before he started hyperventilating and returned to the medical facility with Sonya at his
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side. This time, doctor Thompson injected Rodney with a powerful antipsychotic called hall
14:16
Doll, but Rodney soon started losing consciousness and going into cardiac arrest before his
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heart stopped. The trauma team is summoned to assist him, but when all
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attempts to resuscitate Rodney failed, he was officially pronounced dead at six forty five
14:33
PM. It's sad because it's almost as if people are making assumptions about Rodney
14:39
given the fact that one he does have turettes, which is often coupled with
14:43
things like OCD and high rates of anxiety and depression, and so because they
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know him as having his own self medicating tools, when he's actually experiencing something
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that's scaring him, you can tell that he's overwhelmed, and he doesn't feel
14:58
good, and these are symptoms he doesn't normally feel. His joints ache,
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he can't keep his eyes open without sunglasses on because he's incredibly sensitive to the
15:07
light. His stomach's killing him. He's throwing up blood. To me,
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he knows deep down inside something's wrong. You can tell Sonya's very concerned,
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even though she knows his normal tools and coping mechanisms, and they start to
15:22
kind of calm him. I'm wondering in certain points, is that medicine also
15:28
not helping his heart stay strong? Is it leading or exacerbating the methanol poisoning
15:33
and ultimately speeding up his death. It's worrisome to me that because we didn't
15:39
know he might have ingested this poison at some point that down the road or
15:43
looking back, you don't say like, oh, my goodness, could our
15:46
medicines that we put in to try to help him also have exacerbated the issue.
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I think doctor Thompson basically doing triage because he knows there's something affecting Rodney,
15:56
but he can't in point what it is. So I think that you're
16:00
taking a calculated risk at that point in time going, I don't know what
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it is that is causing these symptoms, and there is a potential that the
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medicine that I'm giving him could worsen these symptoms or even bring upon his death.
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But doing nothing isn't an option type of a situation. So Rodney's death
16:18
took everyone at the base by complete shock, and it soon became apparent that
16:22
it would be impossible to transport his body back to the mainland for months.
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During the South Pole's winter season, the bad weather is incredibly severe and temperatures
16:30
could dip below minus eighty degrees celsius. While it was possible for planes to
16:36
fly over the area and air drop supplies if necessary, landing was out of
16:40
the question as the temperatures could cause a plane's hydraulic fluids to freeze within minutes
16:45
of touching down. So Rodney's co workers decided to build a wooden casket and
16:49
buried him at a temporary grave outside the base, as the coal would help
16:53
preserve his body until it could be picked up. In the meantime. Doctor
16:57
Thompson told the other person at the base that Rodney's death was a result of
17:02
unknown but natural causes, possibly due to a heart attack or aneurysm, and
17:07
the National Science Foundation would issue a formal statement which pretty much stated the same
17:11
thing. The official report read quote there is no evidence to point to homicide,
17:17
accidental poisoning, environmental toxicity, or infection end quote. Well, by
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the end of October, the summer season was finally beginning, so it was
17:26
now safe enough for a plane to land at the station and pick up Rodney's
17:30
body. It would be flown to christ Church, New Zealand, the official
17:33
base for American activities in Antarctica, and both the United States and Australia would
17:38
consent to a coroner's inquest being held there. However, shortly after an autopsy
17:44
was performed, a shocking announcement was made. Rodney's exact cause of death was
17:48
acute methanol poisoning. So you know that the people that are at the base
17:52
and at this research lab, they hear the fact that this is not this
17:57
is not just cardiac arrest, is not just his death may be due to
18:00
an aneurysm or the result of, you know, something that's unknown. Naturally,
18:07
there's a cute methanol poisoning, and so immediately everyone's going what happened with
18:14
who where could this have occurred? Here on this in this research lab.
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Is the person still here that did this to him? It is wild to
18:22
think as a family that your loved one again is pursuing his dream up in
18:26
Antarctica. He's fallen in love and I'm sure communicated that when he gets home
18:30
he's going to build a life with his new fiance, and all of a
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sudden he passes away. His body is just buried outside with this you know,
18:41
makeshift coffin because it's so cold, his body's going to stay intact and
18:45
then good as it was, because if his autopsy had never been able to
18:48
be performed, he would have passed away with no one ever questioning were there
18:52
something? Was there something devious that or something that was criminal that actually happened
18:57
to him. One of this sas there's been is that even if there was
19:02
suspicion that foul play had taken place, that the National Science Foundation would not
19:07
want to announce that for the other personnel station at the base, because they
19:10
think, oh my god, if it's been a homicide, there's a murderer
19:12
and we're trapped here with them and we can't do anything. So I wonder,
19:17
like even if they suspected that Rodney was a victim of foul play,
19:19
they were thinking themselves, well, there's nothing we can really do about it,
19:23
so let's not tell the rest of the staff until after he gets back
19:26
to the mainland. And I'd love to know their security protocol because it is
19:32
this very remote, fifty person team that's been volunteered to stay up there in
19:37
months where it is so cold a plane can't even come in and land to
19:41
pick up a deceased body. So if you're talking about a potential homicide in
19:47
that lab, they did not have the qualified medical care that they needed for
19:51
an emergency situation like his. They didn't necessarily have a criminal investigations team or
19:56
anything that's there, and so those people so would be months out from being
20:02
able to be flown in into help, so it's very overwhelming. Generally,
20:07
only a small amount of methanol can prove fatal, and it turned out that
20:11
around one hundred and fifty millilters was found in Rodney's bloodstream, so it seemed
20:17
likely that he had somehow consumed or ingested it. The base had a large
20:21
supply of methanol, and Rodney used it to clean the telescopes, but as
20:26
far as anyone knew, he had not done so since January, and all
20:30
the bottles of methanol were clearly marked and kept inside a lock cabinet. Curiously,
20:34
a pair of needle marks were found on Rodney's right arm, even though
20:38
he was right handed. While trace amounts of alcohol were found in Rodney's system,
20:44
there was no sign of illegal drugs. In his official report, doctor
20:48
Thompson mcclaid that while he was treating Rodney, he drew blood from his right
20:52
arm and noticed that these needle marks were already there. Rodney apparently told him
20:56
that he had previous attempts at intervenous drug use, and did so at a
21:00
party he attended in christ Church shortly before arriving at the South Pole. However,
21:06
Rodney maintained that most of the other incidents involving intravenous drugs occurred in the
21:11
distant past. Doctor Thompson also said that when he asked Rodney about the last
21:15
time he drank alcohol, Rodney said he hadn't done so in nearly two days.
21:21
Well, yeah, here's another thing. So when they see that intravenous
21:25
mark, they see these needle marks in his arm the alarm bells were likely
21:29
going off saying did someone actually inject him with some type of methanol or methanol
21:34
compound? Right? And the reality is is, thank goodness, the doctor
21:38
had actually addressed some of those things with Rodney. Hey, Rodney, let
21:42
me take kind of the alcohol excuse off the books. When's the last time
21:45
you drank several days ago? Okay, what are these needle marks on your
21:49
arm? Those are from a party and I was being, you know,
21:52
irresponsible, and this is what I was doing. I was experimenting. But
21:56
yeah, he could explain away those marks. It seems if he has a
22:00
cute methanol poisoning, that there's a large amount of methanol that was consumed,
22:07
not this accidental kind of inhalation of it, that it was likely put into
22:11
a drink. Like the idea that is it anti freeze actually pretty sweet and
22:15
doesn't actually indicate that it's a chemical when you consume it in a beverage.
22:21
I think that it's smells it is sweet. But I think in modern times
22:25
they've changed that somehow because pets were dying from ingestion of anti freeze. But
22:30
I think it used to be like almonds or something, Yeah, like a
22:33
nutty kind of sweet flavor. So there were certain drinks you could put it
22:37
in and people couldn't tell it masked, right, mass that flavor of chemicals.
22:42
But yeah, oh my goodness, Yeah, I need to know who
22:45
was he with in those times beforehand. Is it even possible that by cleaning
22:51
these telescopes he could have actually ingested it? It seems purposeful. That's a
22:56
frustrating thing, is that we're not going to get too much information about Rodney's
23:00
exact whereabouts during that time period he may have been poisoned. As we're going
23:03
to talk about that speak one of the side effects of a delayed investigation that
23:07
no one was considering it as a homicide and here we are months later.
23:11
So trying to track Rodney's exact movements prior to his death would be nearly impossible.
23:17
And even though it seems purposeful, when you've got all of these individuals
23:19
there and nobody's questioned them, especially right away, and people aren't volunteering to
23:26
provide information. They're working for Raytheon. Is that what it is? Robin?
23:30
Yeah, some of these people, Yeah, you're working for big corporations.
23:34
They might want to just put a cap on it and not have any
23:37
bad publicity, so being tied to a murder could be potentially bad for them.
23:42
So everybody is not really complying with what the Marx family wants, and
23:48
that's to share information so they can find out what happened to Rodney. And
23:52
it's just infuriating because we don't know from any of the information that we have
23:57
that he was exhibiting some signs of having like a mental health crisis or being
24:02
suicidal. And it looks so purposeful, like you just said, Ashley,
24:07
like somebody did this to him or he did this to himself. But I'm
24:11
more inclined to believe that somebody did this to him, but we've just got
24:15
no evidence to release support that either. So following the autopsy, Rodney's body
24:21
was returned to Australia so his family could finally give him a proper burial,
24:25
but they began to suspect that Rodney might have been the victim of foul play.
24:29
The investigation would be handled by the New Zealand Police and assigned to Detective
24:33
Senior Sergeant Grant Wormald. However, the problem was that this was an unprecedented
24:38
situation and there was a lot of confusion about who had official jurisdiction. In
24:44
nineteen sixty one, the Antarctic Tree System was entered into force after it was
24:48
signed and ratified by fifty three countries who all had an interest in setting up
24:53
scientific research stations on the continent. Each of these countries could make territorial claims
24:59
if they desire, and the Amundsen Scott South Pole Station happened to be located
25:03
within the Ross Dependency Region, which is officially claimed by New Zealand when the
25:08
treaty was signed. However, the United States government does not recognize New Zealand's
25:14
claim to territorial sovereignty or the application of New Zealand law to American citizens who
25:19
would have been operating in Antarctica. In their eyes, workers accused of a
25:23
serious crime at a research station were subject to the laws and jurisdiction of their
25:29
home country, so while questioning and investigations involving American citizens attached to the case
25:36
would have to be performed by the American authorities. And even though Rodney Marx
25:41
was an Australian citizen, the majority of the personnel occupying the Amundson Scott Station
25:45
at the time of Rodney's death were American. So the problem here right,
25:51
Like you're saying, these are international forces that are coming together for this research
25:55
lab, and in order to do so, they're creating treaties and saying,
25:59
look, there are obviously multiple interests that are represented here. And when we
26:03
explore kind of how we're going to handle different situations, one of the things
26:07
they discuss is that in criminal cases, the home country is going to handle
26:12
their own citizens. And unfortunately, when you have a man from Australia and
26:19
going, you know, his body's being transported back to New Zealand, and
26:22
you have this kind of international investigation that's delayed and late, to what extent
26:27
and what interest does the American government have of actually assisting in this investigation and
26:33
how much how many resources are they actually going to give to this when it's
26:37
been so delayed. There isn't a lot of evidence, and we're not very
26:41
clear as to what type of crimes actually occurred. I just don't see it
26:45
being one of the priority cases that you're going to see the American government chasing
26:48
on an international level, and added that there are no real suspects because if
26:53
someone poisoned Rodney, how do you determine who it was, and the American
26:57
government could just say, well, none of the perks we know of her
27:00
suspects, so why should we have to question them. We have no evidence
27:03
that they committed a crime. Ll like, the best they can do is
27:07
say, hey, guys, did you have anything to do with the poisoning
27:08
death of Rodney? And if they say no, and there's no eyewitnesses,
27:14
there's no information, there's no forensic evidence, how would you proceed. The
27:21
investigation was also hampered by the fact that Rodney's body had to remain at the
27:25
station for six months before an autopsy could be performed, and by that point,
27:30
the other forty nine workers from the base had already gone their separate ways
27:33
and returned to their respective homes. Since it was initially announced that Rodney's death
27:38
was a result of natural causes, his office and sleeping quarters were not preserved
27:44
for a potential homicide investigation and continued to be used, and while some of
27:49
his personal items were collected and returned to his family, other items were just
27:53
thrown away. Over the course of the next six years, the investigation into
27:59
Rodney's death would be conducted in secrecy until a coronial inquest was held in New
28:03
Zealand in two thousand and six. After a series of hearings, the inquest
28:08
was indefinitely adjourned and the case started receiving attention in the media. In September
28:15
two thousand and eight, a written report from the inquest was released publicly for
28:18
the first time, which confirmed that Rodney had died as a result of acute
28:22
methanol poisoning. However, the coroner could not find any evidence to conclusively determine
28:29
if Rodney's death was a homicide, suicide, or an accident. Well,
28:33
you're talking about six and eight years later. I mean. The problem is
28:37
is that, like we talk about with all of our cases, that original
28:40
investigation and making sure that you capture everything possible from the beginning is what you
28:45
have to do in a criminal case. And if you don't do that at
28:48
the moment of the crime, then you don't have the ability to rewind time
28:53
and go back. In this case, it's near impossible. There was no
28:59
investigative team showing up to say, hey, we don't know what happened,
29:03
but let's treat this as a homicide, and we can always declare a suicide
29:07
and accident or a natural death. Later that wasn't possible. Here. You
29:11
had a doctor who didn't know what was happening, was trying to get outside
29:15
help and couldn't get through. You have a landlocked I mean this kind of
29:19
locked in research lab where only fifty people are operating there waiting for months to
29:26
come where external people can come in to their lab. And so, yeah,
29:30
of course they went into his room and said, these are personal effects
29:33
his family might want. Let's save them. Let's clean the rest of this
29:37
stuff out because he's deceased and we need to make sure we're moving forward trying
29:41
to get his body home. And so what was not done cannot be fixed,
29:47
especially when you're looking at the case months and then years, almost a
29:51
decade later. I understand why they said, we really have to suspend this,
29:55
like, I don't know where you would proceed from here. So the
30:00
inquest report made note of the lack of cooperation from both the National Science Foundation
30:06
and their contractor, the Raytheon Technologies Corporation, and Detective Senior Sergeant Wormald showed
30:11
no hesitation about publicly expressing his frustration with them. According to Wormald, the
30:18
US Department of Justice was unable to perform official interviews with any of the workers
30:22
from the Mundsen Scott station because the coronial inquest was considered a quote unquote informal
30:29
inquiry, so the NSF and Raytheon had jurisdiction. The NSF told the New
30:33
Zealand Police that they had already performed their own internal investigation and concluded that Rodney's
30:40
death was the result of natural causes, but when Wormwoldt asked for an official
30:44
report of this investigation, he was informed that no such report existed. The
30:49
NSF also failed to provide a list of the forty nine other employees who had
30:53
been assigned to the base at the time of Rodney's death, and the New
30:56
Zealand Police actually had to look up their names on the Internet. The NSF
31:02
did provide consent for the police to mail out questionnaires to these employees, on
31:07
the condition that they could screen the questions beforehand, and they also demanded that
31:11
the employees be made aware that the questionnaires were strictly voluntary well after they were
31:15
sent out, but the police only received a response from thirteen of the forty
31:21
nine employees. Hey not a better return rate for mailout surveys now? Yes,
31:26
jeez? Louise. Okay, so I'm twofold on this. There's kind
31:30
of two different perspectives here. You've got to remember that really, in their
31:36
gut and in their heart, there was no part of this team that was
31:40
actually located in Antarctica that thought there had been something nefarious going on. And
31:45
so when you talk about what was done in the moment, I feel like
31:48
they operate in a way of just genuinely preparing a body to be delivered back
31:53
to a family after the unnatural death. And so you're asking the National Science
31:57
Foundation to then react to a quote potential criminal act, not knowing if it's
32:06
possible Rodney had taken the methanol himself or what had happened. And so they're
32:12
doing what any other corporation's going to do. That's asking people to do things
32:15
like give up their life and comfortson research opportunities, and they want people to
32:22
feel safe. This is a pr nightmare for them. It's also something where
32:25
they aren't truly aware of where we went wrong, what could have happened.
32:31
Are we in some way responsible? So in one way, I do understand
32:35
why there's kind of this resistance or kind of fear to actively participate and at
32:39
least trying to do what's legally best for the company, because I think they're
32:45
equally as confused as everyone listening to it right now, like what happened.
32:50
We don't know what happened. So to say, oh, we're just going
32:52
to sit here and say listen, there's been a homicide and here's what we're
32:55
going to do. We're going to try to go back in time and figure
33:00
about what happened. I just don't know how they were going to make progress.
33:02
So I think that might have been this pr stunt to say, legally,
33:07
we're going to protect ourselves and if you can find information, that would
33:10
be great. If you can't, I don't know what to tell you.
33:14
It's really scary that they didn't know who was on their own base and in
33:17
their own research lab, because then it makes me feel like no one's safe
33:21
there. If I didn't come home, does NSF not know where I was
33:24
located? So those things make me really frustrated for everyone who was on that
33:29
base. If you're concerned about what happened to Rodney or not concerned about what
33:32
happened to Rodney, that's not okay ethically, But I understand that kind of
33:37
legal mindset, but it almost seems like they weren't concerned about anybody who was
33:40
located in that research lab. I love listening to you talk about institutions and
33:46
corporations. I knew this part would be a really good Ashley part, because
33:52
you've always got really great insights as far as that goes, because of your
33:55
expertise and your own personal experience. And it looks like here that they're caring
34:01
more about protecting the corporation or the foundation rather than protecting the individuals that are
34:07
working for it. Yeah. Absolutely, I think they're saying, prove it
34:10
to me, you show me what happened, and then we'll open ourselves up
34:14
right until you can prove this as a homicide, and that we need to
34:16
react to that. We're going to try to pretend like it was not a
34:20
homicide or that we're not highly alarmed, so that no one looking into our
34:23
program and the many opportunities we need fulfilled is going to run in a different
34:29
direction. Yeah. I think that if this has been a crime, that
34:32
it was committed on American soil, and the NSF pretty much told the American
34:37
law enforcement that, Yet we did our own internal investigation. We don't have
34:39
any documentation, but just take our word for it. It probably wouldn't fly.
34:44
But because they're dealing with a police in an entirely different continent in New
34:47
Zealand, they was really nothing the New Zealand Police could do. Wormold was
34:53
most frustrated by his inability to track down the base physician doctor Robert Thompson.
35:00
Thompson possessed a machine called an ecticm, a device which can measure a patient's
35:05
blood chemistry, but it was never used on Rodney before or after his death.
35:09
Thompson's story was that the ectaicem's lithium battery had died, which meant that
35:15
the machine had to be recalibrated every time it was turned on, a process
35:19
which took between eight to ten hours. Thompson never made any attempt to fix
35:23
it, but if the ectaicem had been functional and used on Rodney when he
35:28
first became ill, it might have detected the methanol poisoning and potentially saved his
35:32
life. Unfortunately, since doctor Thompson could not be found, he was never
35:37
formally questioned by the New Zealand Police or did not provide any testimony at the
35:43
inquest. It was also reported that Wormwold's numerous inquiries created diplomatic heat between the
35:50
United States and New Zealand. At one point, the US State Department reportedly
35:54
contacted New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to question why Wormwold had so much perseverance
36:00
on this case. When asked for an opinion about Rodney's death, worm Old
36:06
stated, quote, in my view, it's most likely marx ingested the methodol
36:10
unknowingly end quote. Here's the problems here is that he goes in at five
36:17
point thirty in the morning, and I believe it's six forty five at night
36:20
when he passes away after multiple interventions trying to offer him a sedative and different
36:25
kinds of things to calm his body and his nerves. But this machine that
36:30
would take eight to ten hours. I mean, like, yes, he
36:32
had time to use it, but you have to be keyed off that you
36:37
need to use it. So remember, he was under the impression that he's
36:39
talking to this guy who's sick, like almost presenting with a virus flu situation
36:45
where his body's aching so bad, he's throwing up his mom eyes are really
36:51
sensitive, like he's having a migraine or a panic attack or these kinds of
36:53
things. So when a doctor thinks they know what's happening, they're going to
37:00
react in a way that treats what they think is happening. Remember, he
37:04
thinks he's either having withdraws from alcohol or he thinks that he is having a
37:07
panic attack, And although he's presenting signs that he's also sick, it doesn't
37:15
really like key off that we're going to have a murder on in this lab,
37:20
that we're going to have somebody who's ingested poison, Because if I had
37:23
ingested poison, like the hope is, oh, man, I'm at this
37:27
chemical lab and this poison I ingested it. I need help, And you
37:30
could articulate that he unknowingly likely ingested this, doesn't understand himself what's going on,
37:37
and the doctor doesn't assume he needs to do this blood work up on
37:40
him. So could he have charged this machine? Absolutely? Did he know
37:45
he needed to charge the machine? Probably not, because again he's kind of
37:51
defaulting too. Ah, we know Rodney has problems. He struggles with Turett's
37:55
at a very high end intellectual level, and so in order to cope with
38:00
that and present like his peers in the research lab. He drinks a lot,
38:06
and he also struggled with anxiety and depression, likely related to Tourette's,
38:10
and so he's self medicating. I don't think that this doctor had a reason
38:15
to have his interest peaked towards a potential homicide. And again, I think
38:19
that's why everyone said it's fine that we have to wait months to get somebody
38:23
here, because this is a natural death that occurred in a tragic way.
38:29
No part of him thought, oh, maybe there's methanol poisoning. That's just
38:32
not a common reaction or outcome that I think he was trained to look for.
38:37
I think the criticism is if he had tried to charge the machine at
38:42
that point after Ronnie got sick, it probably would have been too late to
38:45
save his life. I think they were just criticizing him because I guess it
38:49
was his job to perform maintenance on it and then probably like recalibrate it before
38:53
Rodney gets sick. But he just kind of left it to the side,
38:57
and I'm not sure if he would have suspected it was poisoning, but have
39:00
been useful at measuring Rodney's blood chemistry and probably would have provided further insight into
39:04
what happened to him, but unfortunately it just wasn't available at that time,
39:08
And it seems kind of preposterous to me, like, I'm sure you probably
39:13
both thought the same thing. The coronial inquest said, there's no evidence of
39:17
accident, suicide or murder, but it seems pretty unlikely that if you were
39:24
going to end your own life and then you decided, WHOA, I don't
39:29
want to do this, but you'd ingested methanol in order to do so,
39:32
you would tell the doctor what you'd taken so that it could be remedied.
39:37
You wouldn't try to end your own life take it, decide that you want
39:42
to live, and then not disclose the steps that you had taken and the
39:47
substance you ingested, because I'm sure as a scientist he knows that there is
39:52
likely a remedy, but you need to know what you're dealing with, oh
39:57
exactly. And if he had accidentally inst and went, oh my god,
40:00
I'm sick, Oh my gosh, maybe it was the method all that I
40:02
was cleaning stuff with, he also would have articulated that. So whether it
40:07
was intentional or accidental ingestion, if it was his will, that that was
40:12
what happened, he would have articulated that when he's begging for help at the
40:15
doctor's. It does lend itself to say, at the level, at an
40:19
acute level, that took his life. Who did this to him? I
40:23
mean, it really does eliminate anything but someone targeting him or even just being
40:29
I mean, you've seen where poisonings aren't always directed towards somebody. It's just
40:32
someone who wants to take a life and they poison whatever's convenient for them.
40:37
But it feels like this would be with only fifty people at that lab,
40:40
that someone wanted Rodney gone, maybe someone competing for a job, maybe somebody
40:45
who felt threatened by him, maybe someone who was interested in the fiance.
40:50
Weren't there rumors about that Robin that there was somebody who was into his fiance
40:55
and that there could have been some love rival. Well, I know that's
41:00
been proposed as a potential theory, but they haven't really pointed at anyone in
41:02
particular. Like, I mean, maybe that did happen, but because they
41:07
have spoken to so few of the people who were stationed there that maybe that
41:10
information has not gotten out. But it's certainly possible because if someone was jealous
41:15
and hated the idea of having to spend an entire winter for with Rodney and
41:20
Sonya while they were expressing their love to each other. I could see someone
41:22
having a motive to poison him, but they've just never found anyone who showed
41:27
like any open interest towards her. And in a situation like you know,
41:31
six months of extreme light and then six months of dark, people will do
41:37
things that are outside of the norm, and that's why they have to do.
41:42
Like you know, we mentioned the heavy psychological screenings before going into an
41:45
environment such as this, so as we talked about. The investigation did not
41:51
turn up any evidence that Rodney was suicidal, as he enjoyed his work,
41:54
had no financial problems, and of course he had recently fallen in love and
41:59
gotten engage to Sonia Walter. Furthermore, the fact that Rodney kept visiting the
42:04
base's medical facility when he became ill seemed to dismiss the possibility that he had
42:08
any intention of taking his own life. But on the other hand, since
42:13
Rodney was a very well liked person at the base, the investigation failed to
42:16
turn up any potential suspects who might have had a motive to intentionally poison him
42:21
by slipping methanol into one of his drinks. However, given Rodney's reputation as
42:25
a binge drinker, the possibility was also explored that he could have drank some
42:30
methanol for recreational use. Another theory was that he could have accidentally mixed it
42:35
up with an alcoholic beverage, as methanol has a similar taste to vodka.
42:39
Indeed, Rodney was known for having a messy workspace, as nearly twenty empty
42:44
bottles of both alcohol and lab agents were found on top of his desk after
42:49
his death. Okay, but remember he was pretty open with the fact that,
42:53
yes, I've engaged in recreational drugs. I shot up in a christ
42:58
church over in New Zealand. I also drink, but it was been two
43:02
days since I drank. If he is scared of his health and he thinks
43:07
something could have happened to him, like Jules said, he's going to share
43:10
that information. Hey, listen, I'm working with this chemical and I had
43:15
this drink, and what if this happened. I just don't think that if
43:21
he had any knowledge or any intent, like people drink mouthwashed to get drunk,
43:25
right or they'll consume things that actually aren't beverages to get that high.
43:30
And if that's something he was doing, he had never been ashamed to tell
43:34
the truth to the doctor before, and he was being transparent in the moment
43:38
with things that were less than flattering. So why would he hide that.
43:43
I'm about to tell you a way that this could happen that wouldn't involve Rodney
43:49
failing to disclose that. Well, tell me, okay. So yet another
43:53
interesting theory was provided by Harry Maher, who worked as the Health and Safety
43:59
office for the Polar Services and was one of the few NSF employees who was
44:04
willing to testify at the inquest. According to mahar Rodney had purchased what he
44:09
described as an unusual shaped bottle of liquor from New Zealand, which had a
44:14
picture of a shrimp on the label, as well as writing which may have
44:17
been Portuguese. Some of the employees who answered the New Zealand's police questionnaires confirmed
44:22
having seen this bottle of liquor, and it was apparently among the empty bottles
44:27
found on Rodney's desk following his death. When Men's Journal published an extensive article
44:32
about this case in two thousand and nine, an anonymous co worker from the
44:37
base sent them an email proposing a potential scenario where Rodney unknowingly purchased some tainted
44:43
liquor which fatally poisoned him. However, since the bottle was likely thrown out
44:47
before it could be tested, the theory was nothing more than speculation. Even
44:52
though the New Zealand Police were unable to uncover any conclusive answers about Rodney's death,
44:58
the Marx family still publicly thanked them for their efforts. They did not
45:02
believe that the police were ut fault and were disappointed, but neither the NSF
45:07
or Raytheon made any attempt to contact them. The family suspected that Rodney's case
45:12
was just not a high priority for the American authorities since he was an Australian
45:16
citizen. Rodney's father, Paul Marx, had expressed his skepticism about receiving any
45:22
closure, stating quote, after so long, it's probably impossible to ever know
45:27
what happened or if he died by sinister means or accident. That's something we
45:31
have to live with end quote. The Ammonson Scott South Pole Station erected a
45:37
memorial plaque for Rodney and an eight thousand, five hundred foot square plaque for
45:43
Rodney and an eighty five hundred foot mountain in Antarctica's Worster Range would be named
45:49
mount Marks in his honor. But after twenty years, the actual circumstances of
45:53
how Rodney Barks died are still unknown, so I guess you could say the
45:58
path went chilling. Bless their hearts. I feel so sorry for the family
46:05
who's saying we were getting news that our son was not just getting these opportunities
46:09
of a lifetime and is making us so proud by being this premier researcher,
46:14
and you know he is. He's being brave and being one of fifty people
46:17
who says, I'll stay in Antarctica for another year. I'm hanging out here
46:21
all year with fifty people. How elite and magical. And then he's writing
46:25
home and saying, it's not just my career, guys, this is also
46:30
my life. I fell in love, I'm coming home, I'm getting married.
46:32
So they were anticipating a son and daughter in law coming home from that
46:37
trip and celebrating career achievements, the growth of a new love and family,
46:45
and then all of a sudden their son dies, which is tragic enough,
46:47
but they're like everybody else in this scene that as the months unfold and then
46:52
they get his body home, they're thinking, our Sun died to natural causes.
46:55
We get to have this burial for him and put him to rest.
47:00
Tragic loss of a natural death. And then you put in the component that
47:05
it's likely a homicide or a poisoning. It's overwhelming to then shift the grief
47:12
process and restart the narrative trying to grieve a murder of your son, whether
47:16
it is tainted liquor like some people have purported, or whether it's an intentional
47:21
murder. It's almost reminding me of like a they're saying the tailan all murders
47:27
or something where someone just went in, took a bottle of liquor, poisoned
47:30
it, and stuck it back on a shelf, is what one of the
47:32
theories is. I feel like it's more probable that he was targeted because did
47:38
he not share any of that liquor with someone else? Did he not consume
47:43
any of that liquor before he started to get sick? Like was this not
47:46
something he had drank prior? Because he had been there for six months.
47:51
So at that point, you're saying he saved that shrimp labeled liquor for months
47:57
before he tapped into it, and that first time he enjoyed it, did
48:00
he get sick? It seems so sketchy. That's the thing is, we
48:04
just don't know when he first tried it. Because none of the witnesses we
48:07
were interviewed, we're able to confirm that. I would be really interested who
48:12
the anonymous coworker was, who sent the email, who posited this theory.
48:16
It makes me wonder why you wanted to remain anonymous, Like maybe he felt
48:20
that it would risk his career if he speaked out about about anything involving the
48:24
NSF or rathion or something. I don't think he felt that his life would
48:29
be threatened, but I'm sure he felt his employees were not appreciate him providing
48:31
information to the press. That's one side of the coin. The other side
48:37
is exactly he might have been the one who did it, and he's trying
48:38
to like, you know, put a red airring out there, some misdirection,
48:42
Oh yeah, that's true. Yeah, Or what if he's the one
48:45
who actually poisoned the liquor and he's like hey, hand hint, there could
48:49
have been some poisoned liquor there. You know, he could have also been
48:52
the one to actually taint that liquor. And again, I think the person
48:57
who anonymously sends that unfortunately knows if they're trying to do the right thing,
49:00
that they can't go back and retest evidence. And they also aren't going to
49:05
really be able to pen anything on you if you are the person who did
49:08
it. So this episode is truly a first for the Pathway Chile, as
49:15
it's not often that you literally get to cover a cold case from one of
49:17
the coldest places on Earth. When this story started getting media coverage, it
49:22
was often referred to as possibly being the very first South Pole murder, but
49:28
technically it may not be the first recorded murder to ever take place in Antarctica.
49:34
That particular incident is alleged to have taken place in nineteen fifty nine at
49:37
the Vostok Station, a Russian research station located in Princess elizabeth Land, which
49:44
is believed to be the coldest place on Earth. The story goes a two
49:49
Russian scientists got into a heated dispute following a chess match, which led to
49:52
the loser attacking the winner with an ice axe. Different sources give different accounts
49:58
about whether or not the victim survive, so we can't vouch for the truthfulness
50:01
of the story, but apparently the incident led to the banning of chess games
50:07
at Soviet and Russian and Arctic stations weather of the case. It might also
50:12
be premature to refer to Rodney Mark's death as a murder, since that's never
50:16
been conclusively proven, But theoretically, if you wanted to kill someone and get
50:21
away with it, at Arctica could be an ideal place to commit the perfect
50:23
crime. Absolutely, especially if you were looking at these types of stations and
50:30
the labs that are being run there. They are so isolated, they are
50:35
so sparsely populated. There aren't the same types of Yes, there's going to
50:40
be security and precautions to protect the data that's there, but I don't think
50:46
you have a crime prevention and criminal response team as part of the bare bones
50:53
crew that's running there. So one of my all time favorite movies is On
51:00
Carpenter's nineteen eighty two remake of the Thing, and ever since I first watched
51:04
it, I've always been fascinated by the idea of living at an isolated research
51:07
station in Antarctica for an extended period of time, and the terrifying possibility of
51:14
having no means of escape or rescue if something goes horribly wrong. In fact,
51:17
that the Edmondson Scott South Pole Station, whenever the last flight home leaves
51:22
for the winter season, it's become an annual tradition for the crew who have
51:25
stayed behind to immediately have a marathon screening session of the original nineteen fifty one
51:31
version of The Thing, the John Carpenter remake, and the twenty eleven prequel.
51:37
Technically, everyone at the station is now in the same position as the
51:39
characters in those films, as they have no way in or out for the
51:44
next six months. So imagine being trapped there if you discover that someone had
51:49
been murdered. Yeah. I'm a hard pass. I hate horror movies.
51:53
I can handle the real thing, but I don't want to watch any horror
51:58
movies. And I also so don't want to be cold. We've had ice
52:01
and snow for a week with no sun, and I want to move back
52:06
to Florida. So I just all of that sounds like its own nightmare in
52:10
and of itself. Make sure you watch Jean Carpenter's The Thing though, even
52:15
though you don't like horror movies, because it's awesome. It's a really good
52:19
movie. It is. Yes, I'll tell you a summary later that I
52:23
read online. Okay, so I think this would be a good time to
52:29
bring an end to part one. But join us next week as we present
52:31
part two of our series about the unexplained death of Rodney Mars Robin. Do
52:37
you want to tell us a little bit about the Trail Went Cold Patreon?
52:40
Yes. The Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three years now, and
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free episodes of The Path Went Chili. We've got our Path Went Chili mini's,
53:53
which are always over an hour, so they're not very mini, but
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they're just too short to turn into a series. I really enjoying doing those,
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so we hope you'll check out those Patreons will link them in the show
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notes. So I want to thank you all for listening, and any chance
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you have to share us on social media with a friend or to rate and
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review is greatly appreciated. You can email us at The Pathwentchili at gmail dot
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com. You can reach us on Twitter at the Pathwink so until next time,
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be sure to bundle up, because cold trails and chili pass call for
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warm clothing. Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy